Benign Neglect or Active Destruction? A Critical Analysis of Refugee and Informal Sector Policy and Practice in South Africa

Abstract

To fully comprehend the disabling policy environment in which refugees in South
Africa attempt to carve out a livelihood, it is important to analyse two largely
independent but overlapping streams of policy-making. This paper first
examines the post-apartheid refugee protection regime and traces how and why
a generous right-based approach has been progressively comprised by growing
restrictionism, exclusion and bureaucratic ineptitude. The 2017 Refugees
Amendment Act and White Paper on International Migration represent the
culmination of this process. While both are probably unimplementable and will
be the subject of numerous court challenges, they can be seen as a major retreat
and an increasing failure to protect. The second part of the paper traces the
history of national and municipal informal sector governance since the early
1990s. Since so many refugees are forced or choose to work informally, the
uncertainty and confusion this history has produced is of particular relevance.
Refugee entrepreneurs have regularly been the victims of general and targeted
informal sector eradication campaigns.